AUSTRALIAN NATUROPATHIC NETWORK
 Serving the community since 1998

One of my pet interests is reading medical history through the last century and discovering the various forms of medical philosophy that have evolved, crashed, and burned.  It is my desire to one day organise this history, and modern progressive theory, into a context that is relevant to my personal practice of naturopathy.

Naturopathy is steeped in ancient healing traditions and as such has a potent psychological and philosophical basis; however, it is my current belief that a clearly defined progressive model for practice is required in order for naturopathy to maintain relevant to an explosively evolving society. 

Although the academic nature of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is expanding with universities such as CSU, UNE, SCU, UWS, and Latrobe in Australia, Exeter in the UK and Bastyr in the US, I am still searching for a sophisticated model that draws on historical concepts such as holism, psychosomatism, wellness (the Travis model) etc., and unifies the psychological and biomedical basis of naturopathic practice.  It could well be that I am not talking about naturopathy at all - but a progressive form of medicine of which naturopathy can play a part.

The current orthodox medical model, biomedicine, has proven to be incredibly successful.  Simply by comparing the life expectancies from the turn of last century to now demonstrates this.  However, its reductionist nature, read lack of humanity, leaves the way open for the adoption by the community of health care systems that are as old as time itself.  Reductionism, by its very nature does not sit well with the complex human condition: it simply does not satisfy the human craving for mysticism and ancient archetypes (note to self - read more Jung). Neither does it successfully address the chief killers of today which have such a strong psychosocial component.  Indeed, why is the cost of health care increasing so rapidly?  Why is the cost of indemnity insurance out of control?

An interesting model for medical practice was developed and finally documented by George Engel in 1977: the biopsychosocial model.  Some argue that this is a possible 'academic' grounding for the CAM movement. Others argue that it is not a model in any strict scientific sense but a cry for humanity to be injected into increasingly de-humanised medical scientists that really need to be human to work!

Work towards integration of psychosocial & biomedicine is advancing - one only has to pay a visit to amazon.com to see a growing inventory of "integrated delivery of health" titles.  Health psychologists working hand-in-hand with the GP may be the next evolution of primary healthcare - it certainly isn't a new concept.

For myself, the search for how naturopathy can fit into all this has become a quest.  Which elements should be used? Which rejected? What tenets make sense in modern society?  How far can compromise be made between modern living and healthy lifestyle?  At the core, of course, is an uneasy sense that society has gone terribly wrong: simply pedaling harder is going to make us crash faster (tip of the hat to Ishmael).  If we were living more "in tune" with nature (in every sense) the destruction we are doing to the planet and ourselves would not exist?  Herein lies the heart of naturopathy? Could it be we are facing the failings of western religious systems and now see a spiritual sickness manifesting in so many ways?  Possibly all of the above in a complex milieu.

But I digress ... for those of you that are interested I have found the following links useful in my search for information ... I will add to these with time ...

HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY BASICS

Links to other Health Psychology Sites

The Growth of George Engel's Biopsychosocial Model

The rise and fall of American psychosomatic medicine

The Historical and Conceptual Foundations of the Rochester Biopsychosocial Model

University of Rochester Biopsychosocial based course

The biopsychosocial model in psychiatry - dissected with surgical precision.

Eliot S. Dacher